Unsung Heroes
by Wynefred
Summary: Inspired by the E/O Challenge for this week. This is the story of the time two brothers saved us from an unimaginable creature. Outsider POV.


A/N1: This fic was inspired by the _Enkidu07 and Onyx Moonbeam Drabble Challenge_ for this week. The special challenge was to choose a word that has two different pronunciations but the same spelling... and use it both ways in the drabble. The reader then tries to determine which word I used twice, each with a different pronunciation. Obviously, this is not a drabble. Sorry, folks. I tried, really I did. But the story just kept growing. It was completely out of my control.

Since this fic is so friggin' long (for a so-called "drabble"), I don't really expect anyone to find the challenge word. If you do, I'll bake you the yummiest virtual cookies you've ever had!

A/N2: Special thanks to TheYmp for being my beta. Your suggestions rocked! Any further mistakes are mine because I couldn't stop tweaking.

* * *

It all happened so fast. I'd been driving for hours and still had hours more to go. My wife, Val, sat stiff and upright in the passenger seat beside me, bombarding me with her silent anger. The sun had set long before, making it difficult to see the road signs, so I guess it was only inevitable that we'd find ourselves lost on some god-forsaken back road. Val alternated between nagging me to stop for directions and giving me the silent treatment when I'd refuse. I didn't know what she expected, though, since we'd passed nothing but trees and a few closed mini-marts for the last hour.

I love my wife, really, I do, but these road trips are always torture. I couldn't wait to get home so we could finally get out of this car and back to our normal lives.

Needing a distraction, I felt blindly around the center console for my soda, without success. Irritated, I glanced down for a second, quickly located it, and snatched it up with a growl. Yeah, my behavior was over-the-top and childish, but I'd had a long day and was completely out of patience.

When I looked up, there was... something... in the middle of the road. I barely got a look at it before instinct took over. I hit my brakes and swerved, spilling soda all over my lap, but I still wasn't fast enough. My car slammed into the thing, hard, bouncing it off my windshield. I lost control of the wheel as we spun around, ending up with our tail-end stuck in the ditch beside the roadway.

I must've hit my head because I blacked out to the sound of the engine sputtering.

xxXxx

I came to with Val shaking me, calling my name. The mascara tracks lining her face told me she'd been crying, though she seemed in control of her emotions now. The whatever-it-was lay on the ground a few yards beyond my shattered windshield.

Sensing movement outside the car, I looked closer to see the creature stirring. _Good Lord_, I thought, _it's still alive!_

Val must've followed my gaze because I heard her gasp. The thing rose to its feet and I got a good look at it as it stood in the beams of the headlights, watching us. It was taller and wider in the chest than any man I'd ever met and, though it stood on two legs, its body shape was distinctly NOT human, like the joints were backwards or something. The face was... no, it was impossible. I must've hit my head harder than I thought. The thing had animal features, a long snout and a mouth full of sharp canines that glistened in the moonlight. Moving faster than I could ever have imagined, it crossed to my wife's side of the car, ripped the door open, and dragged Val from my arms.

xxXxx

As Val's terrified scream ripped my heart through my throat, I could only stare in dumb shock and watch the thing haul my wife away.

A shot rang out. The creature screamed. Two guys emerged from the tree line, their sawed-off shotguns aimed at the creature. One of them yelled, "Hey, fugly! Why don't ya put her down so we can get back to business?"

The creature screamed again, sounding more defiant than injured. It released my Val, dropping her in a heap on the ground, and charged the men. Shots erupted. Screams and roars filled the air, along with the smell of blood and gunpowder.

All I could think about was Val. Ignoring the chaos, I ran to her and gathered her into my arms.

She shook as she clung to me. "Oh, Alec!"

"Shhh." I tried to sound comforting, though I had no idea whether I was trying to console her or myself.

When she'd calmed enough, I pulled her back to check out her injuries. Claw marks raked her right shoulder and down her arm, and her shoulder looked like it might be dislocated.

"Hey, you two okay?" I looked up to see one of the guys walking toward us, his gun still smoking. His buddy was nowhere in sight. The bloody form of the creature lay on the ground not nearly far enough away.

"My wife...," I began. Fear and dread choked off the rest of the sentence.

The man squatted down beside her, giving her injuries a quick appraisal. I had no idea why I instantly trusted this guy, but I realized with surprise that I did.

"You'll need a hospital for that shoulder, and maybe a few stitches, but I she'll be fine." He took a bandana from his pocket and held it against the worst of the claw marks. "Sorry you two had to get mixed up in this, though."

I couldn't help asking, "What was that thing?"

The guy hesitated before answering. "Let's just say that you won't see anything like it in a zoo. When the hospital asks, you just say it was a bear."

Val shook her head. "What if there are more of those creatures out there? Shouldn't everyone know the truth so they can defend themselves?"

An earnest, almost fearsome, passion radiated from the man. He put a hand on my wife's uninjured forearm, drawing her gaze into his before responding. "I promise you, there are no more of those things around here." He sat back, taking a deep breath and breaking the spell his intense presence caused. Something about his demeanor seemed almost dejected. "Look, most people don't want to know the truth. If you try to tell them, they'll just think you're crazy. Trust me, this is better."

Val turned to me, her eyes pleading. I knew that look, the internal battle she was waging between her sense of honesty and her practicality. I squeezed her hand for reassurance. The man was right, of course. We could never tell anyone what had really happened here. Val sagged a little, but nodded in acquiescence.

The man seemed satisfied. "I'm Dean. My brother, Sam, is off getting our car. When he gets back, we'll drive you both to the hospital. Looks like you could use a lift."

I looked back at my Camry, just then realizing that there was no way we would drive out of here on our own tonight. Val's door was a twisted mess hanging from only one hinge, and smoke oozed from under the hood. Not to mention that the vehicle rested at a crazy angle, the tail resting in the ditch and likely banged up quite a bit. Yep, that would definitely require a tow.

xxXxx

Very soon, the throaty rumble of an engine came nearer. Dean extended a hand to Val, offering to help her up from the ground. I jumped up to add my assistance. The earth chose that moment to twist underneath me and I landed on my butt with an "umph".

"Alec? What's wrong?" Val's voice sounded concerned, though I was having trouble hearing it over the intense throbbing in my head.

Dean was suddenly in front of me, his hands on my face, pulling my eyelids open and beaming a flashlight into my corneas. I tried to push him away, but my arms and hands refused to cooperate.

"Looks like your husband has a mild concussion. Guess we need to get you _both_ to the hospital." Louder, he added, "Sam! Give me a hand here."

Between them, Dean and Sam managed to get us into the back seat of their giant black car. The trip there was hazy, except that Val's hand stayed clasped in mine the whole way.

xxXxx

Dean and Sam corroborated our story with the hospital staff, and later with the sheriff. The scenario they wove was that they'd been hiking when they came across fresh bear tracks. They'd followed the tracks, then scared the bear away when it attacked us.

Everyone agreed that we'd been very lucky. They told us we weren't the first victims of this rogue bear; several bodies had been found in the area over the last few months. They wouldn't give us any of the particulars, but we could imagine it had been pretty gruesome. The sheriff assured us that a search party would be formed in the morning to hunt down the creature.

The hospital staff made a fuss over us both, rushing us into the examination room immediately. That's one advantage of a small town hospital.

I don't remember much about the examination room. I think I threw up on a nurse, but the details are fuzzy.

I panicked when they wheeled Val out of my sight, though they assured me she was only going for x-rays. I found out later that Val received twelve stitches and her dislocation required surgery to correct. She came out of it well and they put us in the same hospital room, where we both stayed for several days free of charge, compliments of the town's mayor.

The local newspaper editor/head reporter even stopped by to interview us for a front-page exclusive. Val was uncomfortable about telling our trumped-up account, so I did all the talking.

No one questioned our story.

xxXxx

Sam and Dean disappeared somewhere in the middle of all the confusion at the hospital. Val and I haven't seen them since.

We kept up with local news even after we were released from the hospital and left town, heading home in our newly repaired Camry. There was never any mention of the creature's body being found. I don't know what Sam and Dean did with it after dropping us off... and I don't want to know. Some things are best left in ignorance.

Of course, the search party never found a bear, but campers stopped going missing and mutilated bodies were no longer being found. Experts surmised that the bear had moved on, probably returning to its native home in the wilder country of the northern hills.

In the years that followed, we'd occasionally hear in the news about events that seemed too strange to believe. Whenever we'd hear these outrageous stories, we'd think about two brave brothers. Where were they now? What other bizarre creatures were they battling? Because we were both convinced that what happened to us wasn't just a random coincidence. Those men were too confident-too prepared-to be anything but professionals. The thought was both reassuring and alarming.

If Sam and Dean ever do cross my path again, I intend to shake their hands. It's not often you find real heroes; men who save the day without sticking around for a reward.

Val and I were fortunate enough to meet two.


End file.
